16 finalised

Line up for Match Cup Sweden (formerly Swedish Match Cup...) announced

The skippers line-up has been finalised now for the World Match Racing Tour’s Match Cup Sweden in Marstrand, 2-8 July. Today the two last places were filled with two top, Nordic sailors from the America’s Cup - Sweden’s Mattias Rahm, strategist and second helmsman on board Victory Challenge, and Denmark’s Jesper Radich, from the Spanish boat Desafio Español.
 
"We are happy to have 16 top ranked skippers, among them seven Scandinavians. This will guarantee that this year’s World Match Racing Tour event will be both extremely competitive and of the highest sailing quality," said Erik Centerwall, GKSS, Match Cup Sweden’s Sports project manager.

Mattias Rahm, 34 year old sailor from Torslanda, Sweden, has been one of the key people with Swedish Victory Challenge during the America’s Cup pre-event Acts in 2005 and 2006, and during the Louis Vuitton Cup. He was appointed strategist on board during pre-races and as second helmsman during the Louis Vuitton Cup. Mattias is the brother of Stefan Rahm, Victory Challenge’s tactician.
 
Mattias has four World Championship medals, two golds in the E-dinghy, silver and bronze in the 470 and European Championship gold also in the 470. Mattias also participated in the Sydney Olympics 2000. Since then he has been skipper and strategist with Magnus Holmberg in circuit match races and in the Cup with Victory Challenge.

In 2001 Dane Jesper Radich started sailing on the World Match Racing Tour full time and in the 2002-2003 season was crowned Tour Champion. Radich has participated in Match Cup Sweden several times, regularly appearing in the quarter finals. He is part of the Spanish America’s Cup challenge, where he helped take Desafio Español to reach the semi finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Held in Marstrand, Sweden over July 2-8, the Match Cup Sweden is the largest match racing event in Sweden. It comprises three main parts, the World Match Racing Tour, entertainment and public event and a high end corporate seminar, the Corporate Event Marketing Forum. The initiative comes from Brandspot, which in sports cooperation with GKSS arranges Match Cup Sweden, the eighth stage of the 2007 World Match Racing Tour.

Skippers:

Ian Williams (O1), Great Britain
Peter Gilmour (O4), Australia
Eric Monnin (O15), Switzerland
Jenny Axhede (W7), Sweden
Sebastien Col (O3), France
Gavin Brady (AC), Nya Zealand
Björn Hansen (O8), Sweden
Magnus Holmberg (AC), Sweden
Claire Leroy, Frankrike (W1), France
Malin Millbourn (W13), Sweden
Simon Minoprio (O21), Nya Zealand
Eugeniy Neugodnikov, (O6), Russia
Mathieu Richards (O2), France
Johnnie Berntsson (O14), Sweden
Jesper Radich (O88), Denmark
Mattias Rahm (AC), Sweden

(ISAF Rankings in Open/Women’s list of May 07)